Technovia

links for 2008-06-29

• Pukka Pies Merchandise
  Quite possibly the best thing I've ever seen: Pukka Pies merchandise. You can't buy the pies, but you can buy t shirts!
  (tags: pies presents merchendise food)

An iPhone with a keyboard? And some musings on Steve Jobs

newswireless.net .:. News .:. "An iPhone with a keyboard? Never!" Well,…:

"It is an article of Faith, of course, that whatever Steve Jobs does, is Right. And so, since the iPhone currently has no keyboard on it, it must logically follow that it is wrong to have a keyboard, and therefore that Steve Jobs will never produce a version that does have a keyboard.

Fervent fans can therefore see no reason to change the iPhone from its current 'type on the touch screen, or not at all' design. As one of the more zealous remarked when the suggestion was even mentioned: 'The only people who think it needs a keyboard, are people who have never used it.'

Rumours from inside Cupertino suggest that Jobs himself doesn't have this sort of religious hangup about his own work. Reports from inside mobile operators show that whether or not he ever makes it work, he is already trying to make a 'slide-out' keyboard for a corporate version of the iPhone."

Jobs is, of course, well known for insisting that something isn't a viable product, and that no one could possibly want one - right up until the day he launches it. See, for example, his half-decade insistence that the future of the Mac was PowerPC, while he sensibly produced a version which ran on Intel.

(Which reminds me of an example from history, as told to me by one of the former Newton team. Jobs called him and some other Newtoneers into a meeting, in which he held up a Newton. Pointing at it, he said "Apple makes computers. Computer have keyboards. This thing doesn't have a keyboard." And, leaving them to draw the inference out himself, he ended the meeting. Fast forward to today, and Apple makes rather a large chunk of money from computers which have no keyboard. Only now, they're called "iPhone".)

One thing that anyone watching Apple always needs to bare in mind is this: while Jobs is idolised by a cloud of true believers, he is, in fact, capable of performing strategic back-flips faster than almost anyone in the industry. While the true believers laud whatever thing they think is "the one true way", Jobs will drop it like a ragged old hat as soon as he believes it's to Apple's advantage.

Jobs is ruled by only one true belief: Make the best, deepest, most elegant products you can, preferably with the biggest margin you can get away with.

It's one of the reasons why I like him.

Daring Fireball Linked List: The Big Leagues

Daring Fireball Linked List: The Big Leagues:

"If you’re thinking in terms of a couple hundred dollars, your app probably isn’t even going to get listed in the App Store. The App Store isn’t going to be like VersionTracker or MacUpdate, where every piece of junk gets listed as it’s submitted."

Which again raises the question: Is Apple going to be the gatekeeper not just in terms of whether applications are security risks - the original justification for the App Store strategy - but also whether they think the application has appeal?

If Apple is going to be the arbiter of what counts as "good" for applications, that effectively locks out many, many small developers - and also reduces the potential choice for consumers. It also means niches are ignored: an application might well only sell a couple of hundred copies, but be - to those couple of hundred users - of great benefit.

Let's note again: if Apple rejects your application, there is no alternative way of getting your programme on non-jailbroken iPhones. Apple controls the developer channel completely. Because of that, I think it has a duty to be as broad as possible in who it accepts. Consumers, not Apple, should be the arbiters of what is a good, viable application. Let free markets decide.

Where did it all go wrong? When Labour started telling lies - Telegraph

Link: Where did it all go wrong? When Labour started telling lies - Telegraph.

"A senior academic from Imperial College says that universities have to run catch-up classes for many students with excellent A-levels. And the National Audit Office reports that poor A-level results were the main reason why state school pupils fail to get into a decent university."

It's worth noting that this isn't something you can actually pin totally on Labour. When I was a postgrad back in the early 1990's, the quality of writing ability in students dropped notably over five years - despite them all apparently getting better A level results.

The reason, of course, was the massive expansion of higher education initiated by the Tories and continued under Labour. It was, and is, a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.

Somebody put Kevin Kelly back in the box, please

Infoporn: Tap Into the 12-Million-Teraflop Handheld Megacomputer:

"Indeed, a hyperlink is much like a synapse in the brain."

Only if you know absolutely nothing about the way the brain works.

The good and bad of William H Gates III

I've always had something of a love-hate relationship with Bill Gates. On one hand, as the father of Windows, he's made me curse more times than any living person. As the head of Microsoft, he's been responsible for some business practices that kinder will call "tough competition" and the less-kind "illegal abuse of a monopoly".

But on the other hand, as a businessman he's a legend. Few others in history have built companies as strong as Microsoft from nothing. And while Microsoft has occasionally stepped over the line, I admire Gates' toughness, his determination to be number one.

The published extracts from Steven Levy's interview with Gates reveal both sides of him - the exasperating and amazing. There's his statement that the anti-trust case wasn't a low point, and his reference to it as "that one little thing". That's the side of Gates that exasperates.

But the admirable side is there too, and it's largely shown in what he says about the work of The Gates Foundation - and how he's not afraid of personal attacks that it might bring:

"The new world is more controversial than the old world. We do family planning. We fund research on crops that will help the poor, not starve them. Some people think that type of droughtproof genetically modified seed causes environmental changes and you shouldn't take science and help the poor people. In terms of controversy, this whole thing about which operating system somebody uses is a pretty silly, limited thing, compared to starvation and death"

If Gates runs at the problems of disease, poverty and malnutrition with the energy and talent that he showed in building Microsoft, I'll more than forgive him for the hell that Windows has given me. Like he says, when compared to starvation and death, arguments about operating systems are nothing.

links for 2008-06-23

• Testing Ubuntu Linux
  Ashley Highfield's notes on his ongoing test of Ubuntu.
  (tags: AshleyHighfield BBC Ubuntu Linux)
• Bean: An OS X Word Processor
  A simple, free word processor for Mac OS X which includes a nice full-screen editing mode and (joy of joys) live word count. Ideal for banging out that first draft of something.
  (tags: Apple application applications cocoa download Mac free osx writing word via:gilest)
• Software was sold, not licensed, says US court | OUT-LAW.COM
  This one has huge implications - it may well demonstrate once and for all that shrink-wrap licenses are effectively unenforceable.
  (tags: copyright law software licensing)
• French say non to pirates with year long ban
  The HADOPI bill, if made law, will see persistent offenders being banned by all French ISPs.
  (tags: copyright law france HADOPI)

Free dailies - still not a "bright light" in the newspaper industry

More evidence that, despite Chris Anderson's claims, free may be less of a viable business model than people expect, as Roy Greenslade reports that News International may be shutting thelondonpaper:

"Rumours are rife that News International, now run by James Murdoch, may be about to close down thelondonpaper, claims The Observer media diary (not online). According to the item, 'there are signs' that Associated's rival freesheet, London Lite, 'may be winning its rearguard action'. One of those signs is that thelondonpaper 'is no longer being handed out at several tube stations.'"

And, I'll note again, the profoundly not-free Economist seems to be doing rather well for itself...

Technorati Tags:
Chris Anderson, Journalism, Newspapers, The Economist, thelondonpaper

Why Andy Ihnatko is a really good writer

Because he comes out with stuff like this:

“Setting up a server is like playing an old Infocom adventure. It’s an endless series of puzzles and even when you think you’ve solved them all…you’re eventually totally screwed because three months ago, you didn’t FEED CHEESE SANDWICH TO DOG.”

…in a blog post. A blog post that NO ONE IS PAYING HIM FOR. Giving away good lines like this is a piece of largesse that other freelance writers would baulk at, trust me.

Technorati Tags: Andy Ihnatko,writing

Uh-oh. More MacBook Pro power problems

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember my annoyance and frustration when the Mag"Safe" power supply on my MacBook Pro decided it was going to melt at the plug end.

It appears that the replacement power supply is also having issues - or, even worse, possibly the power supply on the board. About half the time at the moment, when I plug in the MagSafe, it's coming up with the "Not Charging" message above. Given that the battery is currently at 11%, that's an issue - one which is effectively gradually converting my laptop into a desktop.

I can usually get the power to start trickling in, by the simple expedient of wiggling the connector until it starts working. I've cleaned the connectors, so I know it's not that.

But isn't it about time that Apple admitted that this power supply is a triumph of style over proper industrial design? It's a great idea, but it just doesn't work. Being able to kick out the cord and not have the machine crash to the ground is great - but it's not like I actually do that often enough to justify the cost of two power adaptors over two years, and a laptop which can only really be used as a desktop.

Of course, typically, mentally I'm using this as a way of justifying another laptop purchase. "Yeah... I could just use the Pro as a desktop machine, and have a MacBook Air for mobile use... yeah, that would work..."